When opting to pay someone to help recover an
identity, it is a good idea to check with the Better Business Bureau
and the Chamber of Commerce for the city in which they are located.
In addition, one should get a contract, in writing, stating what
they will do and the expected outcome. The idea is to avoid having
them claim that they tried, and yet, there is still an arrest on
oneís record that was committed by the identify thief.

The most effective and safest approach is to
take on identity recovery as a personal project. There are
resources available from the Federal Trade Commissionís ID Theft
resource web page (www.consumer.gov/idtheft) and The National
Center for Victims of Crime (www.ncvc.org) that can help
anyone organize the required documentation and develop an action
plan.

One thing that an individual needs to do once
they discover that their identity has been stolen is to file a
police report. This will likely be needed for some creditors as
proof of the crime.

The following are some steps that an individual
will need to take to start working on recovering their identity:

Call and write the fraud units of the three
main credit bureaus and ask for a fraud alert to be placed in their
file.